The Right Wing spin machine has been out in full force this week with the surprising announcement from the White House that they would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act. Fox News contributor Monica Crowley referred to Barack Obama's decision as "A form of dictatorship." She said:

"It's beyond belief. We are a nation of laws, not of men. We are governed by the rule of law. And what the Constitution says is that the president of the United States doesn't get to decide which laws he likes and which ones he's gonna enforce.... that is a form of dictatorship. That is Mubarak Obama."

Crowley went on to say that if W. Bush had done something similar, the left would be calling for his impeachment. [Note that Monica changed what Obama said from "defend" to "enforce."]

And the leader of the Republican Party, and part-time legal scholar, Rush Limbaugh couldn't resist a similar critique. He said:

"Determining the constitutionality of a statue is not the job of the president, it's not the job of the attorney general. They can't do, legally, what they're doing here...These are the new left outlaws."

And the other leader of the Republican Party, Glen Beck had this to say:

"This guy thinks he can literally do anything he wants whether he has a legal way to accomplish it or not, and it is frightening."

And Fox News entertainer, Sean Hannity, agreed with Crowley:

"And I'm thinking, it's almost like, they don't -- do they not care about the rule of law? Do they not care about precedents?

And the entire right wing blogosphere is erupting.

There is only one problem. Obama isn't doing anything new. It's long-standing tradition for a president to decide not to defend an obviously unconstitutional law. In fact, one of our Founding Fathers did it as president. President Jefferson ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the Sedition Acts. In fact, as Vice-President, he had authored a state law, which nullified it completely.

And we don't even have to go back that far to find "dictators" in the White House. George W. Bush, in fact, ordered the Justice Department not to defend a law that withheld federal money from transit systems that had ads advocating the non-enforcement of drug laws.

Clinton and Papa Bush are also on the list of Presidents who refused to defend unconstitutional laws.